Graham Young reviews Looking For Hortense which is showing at MAC Birmingham until Tuesday (10)

But we sometimes forget about this wondrous delight... because she keeps working in France.

And in French, too.

Once again, those fine cheekbones disguise the fact she’s now 53 and her accent is so convincing, two fascinating aspects of her sheer class which is ultimately more interesting than the film.

Directed by Pascal Bonitzer (Encore), this is the story of a couple falling out of love, even though they have a young son, Noé.

Actor Jean-Pierre Bacri’s is almost ten years older than Thomas and her youthfulness stretches the gap beyond plausibility because even at the beginning it’s too difficult to imagine what she ever saw in him.

Iva (Thomas) is trying to stage a new play while overcoming the advances of a handsome younger actor offering extra-curricular services.

Bacri’s Damien is a professor of Chinese civilisation and their relationship is put to the test when Iva asks her partner to help to prevent woman she knows called Zorica from being deported.

But how can Damien do that when he doesn’t get on with his father who is a senior member of the French Council of State.

Though beautifully filmed and impeccably acted, the story is just too French, domestic and dull to light the fires of conflict.

“I find you very beautiful, tragic even,” he says to Iva.

If you think it’s a stretch imagining Iva and the ageing Damien being passionate together, it’s also too hard to believe that he’s still got a father young enough to be so active.

Looking For Hortense is at MAC Birmingham from September 6 until Tuesday 10 and at Warwick Arts Centre until Sunday 8.